Entering a New World of Moviegoing

After you drop off your jacket, briefcase or umbrella at the coat check, your host escorts you to a comfy, overstuffed chair and faux-marble table and hands you a menu.

Another attendant stands by unobtrusively to take your order, which arrives within minutes. There’s just enough time to briefly compare notes with the couple at a neighboring table before the show begins.

Despite the trappings, this is not Toronto’s newest nightclub, nor is it a luxury box at the SkyDome stadium, home to baseball’s Blue Jays and the occasional rock concert. It is North America’s first premium-priced moviegoing experience, an experiment by Cineplex Odeon Corp. that, if it pays off, could be coming soon to a theater near you.

Ken Prue, senior vice president of marketing and communications for Cineplex Odeon, says the concept is modeled on sports luxury boxes and upper-class air travel.

“We’re trying to learn if there’s a segment of the moviegoing public that’s willing to pay premium prices for a first-class or business-class environment,” Prue says.

For a ticket price of $12 Canadian (the equivalent of about $7.95), patrons of the four “VIP Screening Rooms” at a new theater complex here avoid waiting in line, have their popcorn, soft drinks or other snacks delivered to their seats, and watch the movie from oversize chairs with extra legroom and individual side tables. They also have a separate lounge, restrooms and coat check--the latter especially significant in winter, when theatergoers often take over extra seats with their parkas.

Ticket prices are $3 higher than for the eight other screens in the multiplex, most of which feature the steeply pitched stadium-style seating, curved screens and enhanced sound systems that are increasingly standard across North America.

Since opening in April, Prue says, the VIP rooms have operated at 62% capacity, compared with 41.5% for the entire complex. Part of the reason, he concedes, is that the screening rooms have only 30 to 36 seats each, but it’s also evident that they’re too small. Much of the business they generate comes from their rental to corporations and individuals for sales meetings, client entertainment and celebrations such as birthday parties, and a more ideal size would be 72 to 100 seats, Prue says.

One of the biggest fans of the concept is Piers Handling, director of the Toronto International Film Festival.

“Cineplex Odeon has done a fantastic job with these,” says Handling, who took over the 12-screen complex for the festival in September.

Handling, who travels the world scouting films for the annual festival, says the VIP concept is part of a general upgrading of movie theaters in North America and Europe, “as opposed to the old days when going to the movies meant your feet would stick to the floor from all the Coke and Pepsi that had been poured over it.”

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It’s no coincidence that the premium theater concept is being pioneered in Toronto--although a similar venue has been opened by General Cinema Theaters in the Chicago suburb of Lombard, Ill. Toronto is the fifth-largest metropolitan area in North America and has long been a vital film market. Box office revenues for the first 31 weeks of this year were up 27% over 1997, the largest growth in any major market. Plans are underway to double the 350 screens in the region over the next 2 1/2 years.

The multiplex, located in the heart of Toronto’s most posh shopping and entertainment district, also has an arrangement with the bar and restaurant one floor below. Every table there has a card listing current movies and show times, and customers can order movie tickets along with dessert.

Prue says it is too early to draw firm conclusions about the long-term future of the premium cinemas, but there are tentative plans to open similar theaters in New York, Detroit, Vancouver, Montreal and Calgary.

It’s also possible that a planned renovation of the Universal City multiplex next year will include VIP screening rooms, he says.

A sampling of customers on a recent Saturday night turned up general enthusiasm for the concept but some disappointment that the food is the usual array of popcorn, candy, nachos and hot dogs. (Private parties can order liquor and more elaborate fare catered by the restaurant downstairs.)

Shannon MacDonnell and Patrick MacNulty, however, said the added luxury helped lure them out to a movie theater for the first time in two years. “Now we’re thinking we might come to more movies,” MacDonnell said.